There is something hearty and traditional about a steak’n’guinness pie on a winter’s night. A solid meal of beef dressed in black, the perfect beginning for the night of rock’n’roll that lies ahead.

The evening starts with the tradition of the ‘torch’ being passed along. In the past it was a duty of the Hoodoo Gurus to pass the baton to the best up and comers in the flock and take a young You Am I on as support act to tour up the East coast some thirteen years ago. AIt was a premonitory opportunity. You Am I have shouldered this mantle and continued the tradition with this tour; first support The Vasco Era take the torch and light the stage for You Am I this time around…

The Enmore Theatre is big and empty, with only fifty on-lookers, but The Vasco Era are immersing themselves in the opportunity to play with such volume, and realise the potential of the venue in its all. When Sid O’Neil (lead singer) steps into his acoustic solo song in the middle of the set, his voice fills the immensity of the empty Enmore, swarming all around us, and we no longer feel a lone. It is like we are a lucky fifty punters that have been allowed into a soundcheck – before the band play to a fullhouse later on in the night. The Vasco Era are energetic in their rock, and when the drummer and bass player hammer out the last few songs, the enthusiasm is infectious. The lapsteel finale completes the band’s  performance with all the confidence of the world’s bigger stages they are about to conquer.

The Drones fill the stage with their numbers, and the venue starts to gain an eager crowd. They give us a relentless shimmy into the rock’n’roll evening, with no dynamics into the unknown, but the crowd is feeling frisky and it is the for You Am I  which the expectancy rises.

So when Tim Rogers finally struts on stage to say “We’ll play a selection of faves later on, but for now its Timmy time”, is already warmed up for the night. By the fourth song ‘Baby Clothes’ Rogers’ shirt was unbuttoned and the crowd were stirring. After ‘Friends Like you’ Timmy agreed with the wild movements of the crowd, quipping “Good song innit?” The agitation of great rock’n’roll was breathing through the audience. ‘Cathy’s Clown’ was starting to get everyone hot and bothered before Tim pulled on his classical guitar for a quarter time solo break. Into this mix, throw some of your favourite heart-rending tunes – ‘Handwasher’, ‘Hourly Daily’ and ‘Ordinary’ – a purple backdrop and a big spotlight on Tim (the smile is huge across the face).

The band then return to the stage and launch into ‘Jaimme’s Got a Gal’ and the night is flogging its way up the highway at a great pace. Davey Lane slays his Gibson in “Born to Lose”.While new track ‘Constance George’ from Convicts is a fookin cracker, before ‘Berlin Chair’ absolutely brings the crowd into a seething lather of sweat.

Even Tim is a man possessed in as much a rabid lather, roaming the stage for the final song ‘Thank God I Hit the Bottom’ with all of the Iggy Pop inspiration and anger a night can muster.

Andy Kent and Russel Hopkinson provide the red wine nonchalance of a solid backline pumping it out with a straight edge while Rogers and Lane slay at the bottle on the side. This is a return to form of Australia’s finest, and a sweaty winter’s night is just what the Doctor of Rock ordered. You Am I return for the encore with ‘Sound As Ever’ and ‘How Much is Enough’ and ‘Jewels and Bullets’ before finishing it off with a slow one, ‘Open All Night”, a leisurely end to a frenetic night, perhaps too leisurely as someone in the crowd thinks they are at the Coldplay gig a few nights prior, and a lighter emerges above the head, forcing Tim to crack: “Put down your fookin’ lighter mate!”

It is a night of tradition as hearty as the chunks in my steak’n’guinness pie. Rock on into this beast of a night, find it where you can.